Yeaton Row
Yeaton Row, often shortened to simply 'The Row', was named after a winter wolf known as Yeaton, whose actions are known to have saved millions of lives during the evacuation of Old Town. The Row is situated at the geographical center of Paradise City, serving as its primary residential district with easy access to the other regions within the City. It is informally divided into five general sections which are separated by purpose and tax brackets- the Upper Row, Lower Row, the Barrowburbs, the Civious, and the Lockwitch Barrens. The vast majority of the City's populace calls the Row home; subsequently, it is the most carefully and heavily guarded of the City's counties, equal to the defenses around the Bolus-Mordan itself. Because it is effectively the heart of Paradise City, Yeaton Row was initially built with pure industrial efficiency in mind. Most of it is extremely bland as a result- it is by no means the prettiest county, but the rents are reasonable even if the roaches are sometimes infuriatingly talkative. As with the rest of the City, the streets are numbered rather than named, and its design is intentionally labyrinthine in nature to add further layers of security in the event of ground-based invasions. At almost all hours of the day, a legion of civil service personnel can be found working tirelessly to ensure that the Row is a decent place to live, and a safe place to raise a family. Whenever possible, these public servants endeavor to make sure that the grittier aspects of Paradise City, such as those found in the Eden Bazaar, are kept out. The initial construction plans for the Row suggest that it was meant to be neatly and evenly divided into the sectors listed above; but frequent reconstruction, demolition, and repurposing of unusing housing developments have made the sectors lopsided in terms of area used. The Upper Row: The truly wealthy make their homes in Marlietta, but for the upper-middle class of Paradise City, there is the Upper Row. Large and expensive houses and housing complexes, many of which are Halfling owned, and gated communities which come in all shapes and sizes. Many individual homes are fenced or even walled off, with sizeable yards and personal septic systems, allowing the well off to keep their goings-on secure and private from outsiders, just how they like things. Some 30% of the space in the Upper Row is uninhabited, ostensibly set aside in case newer families climb up the ladders of society and economics and require space for new abodes to suit their new, more affluent lifestyles. The Lower Row: The Lower Row is the largest part of the county, where the majority of the middle and lower-middle class live. This part of the county is where the Row gets its name- endless rows identically built low-cost urban housing developments for as far as the eye can see. The only effective means of telling blocks apart, due to their simplistic and almost spartan design, is by individual markers and signs posted by various factions within the City, each claiming various swaths of housing blocks as their territory and procuring rent from those who live there. Most blocks are designed as apartment complexes, built around communal spaces with a handful of trees or simple, aesthetically pleasing architecture, generally made by art students. A number of blocks are known for using their communal spaces as gardens, growing plants that are either pretty and worth something on the market, plants commonly used by alchemists, or small gardens to help supplement food resources. Space is usually limited, but comfortable. Larger families, such as Halfling and Draconid clans, are known for knocking out walls and completely redesigning the interiors to suit their needs. The Lower Row features the largest number of unused housing- which is somewhat problematic as the population slowly grows, forcing people to move into blocks which have been uninhabited for years, decades, sometimes even centuries. Less than half of the area's potential housing has seen use, the rest has been- like with the Upper Row- kept in reserve, maintained and kept clean by the Enforcers and hired Freelancers as the City patiently waits for a population boom that won't suffer from setbacks due to hostile forces trying to crush them. The Barrowburbs: The Barrowburbs are a large suburban development set aside specifically for the City's various religious groups and their places of worship. The Universal Temple and a significant majority of the Pagan faiths are represented here. The Universalians have their Templum Primus, a fairly large cathedral which acts as the religion's central administrative HQ, along with several smaller temples for people to come and pray. The Pagans have various temples dedicated to their gods, some grand and some small; almost all of them have at least a shrine to their name, even the god-like spirits of the Neo-Shintoist faith and the Dragon Lords enjoy some amount of acknowledgement. The only faiths which are not (legally) recognized are those of the Heretics and their dark gods and fell powers. While friction exists between the Pagans and the Universalians, most of this is a friendly rivalry rather than outright hostility- many of them work well together, sharing a level of camaraderie built up during the Wars, that has lasted for centuries. Aside from providing space for places of worship, the Barrowburbs earns its name by housing the City's graveyards, crypts, and mausoleums- which have gained a reputation as some of the safest places for the dead to rest in the world, what with having so many readily available Paladins, Clerics, Inquisitors, and arcane casters to keep watch over them. This adds yet another layer to the City's defensive measures- more than half the people in the City sign contracts allowing Necromancers and clergy to raise their corpses as Shamblers to help defend the City in times of crisis. Lockwitch Barrens: The Barrens are effectively the 'poor quarter' of the City, on the opposite side of the county from the Barrowburbs. Ostensibly an offshoot of the Lower Row, it has become an enormous ghetto of poorly maintained projects and shanty houses. Life is short and fairly cheap around here. The poor, the homeless, the inept, and those so incapable that society has shunned or forgotten them entirely gather in great congregations, desperately trying to eke out some sort of living. Fortunately, the percentage of destitution and poverty has never risen above about 6% of the City's overall population. The goodwill efforts of various charitable institutions, religious and otherwise, and disease and violence have played considerable roles in keeping the population of poverty-stricken from growing. However, because there are so few people- a handful of hundreds of thousands at most- vast amounts of space in the Barrens go unused. These spaces have a tendency to slowly decay and become ideal locales to house all sorts of hostile things. Groups considered criminal even by Paradisian standards, terrorist cells, twisted cults, and flesh-hungry monsters are wont to congregate around here. The Enforcers do not patrol much of these mean streets due to the impact of high risk/low rewards. The only real law around the Barrens are whatever the locals themselves can prop up, though the recent establishment of the Universal Temple's HQ has seen increasing numbers of holy soldiers trying to pick up the slack and help keep order. The Civious: The Civious sector is a fairly large sector dedicated to providing the Row with all the necessary amenities needed by a modern civilization. Hospitals, restaurants, insurance agencies, schools, precincts, auto shops, malls, fast food dives, civil service centers, banks; the works, as it were. The Civious provides the common citizen everything it can to keep them happy and help them to grow. It is unique from the other sectors in the Row in that it owes allegiance to no faction other than the Enforcer's Guild and Mr. Cartwright- no other faction holds any sway here, even if they own businesses and provide services from the region. Only the Guild has the right to levy any sort of taxes from the Civious, though they usually only demand any from the largest groups. Places of Note-''' '''Templum Primus: The Universal Temple has always had some presence in Paradise City, but only in recent years has it become centralized. The self imposed exile of the Temple's leadership left the Universalian clergy disorganized and weak. Though the site of the Templum Primus is often seen as little more than a token gesture on Mr. Cartwright's part, it has proven to be a brilliant tactical maneuver that has eased the pressure on the Enforcers who patrol the county- the Temple often volunteers personnel to assist with matters secular and spiritual. Though the Temple does not have the official right to act in such a vein, the Inquisition requires all rookie Inquisitors to spend several years working with the Enforcers, either joining the Guild proper or as deputized Freelancers. Many Inquisitors these days get their first taste of combat while helping the Guild keep order and stamp out corruptive elements, as well as invaluable experience in working with secular law enforcement agencies, while the Guild itself gains a constant stream of temporary personnel to help bolster their ranks. Furthermore, the Temple has coordinated with their Pagan counterparts to establish a series of Outreaches in the Barrens, which is steadily reducing the attrition rate in the ghetto- it's much harder to rob or wreck charity organizations when they're guarded by large people in heavy armor who can call down the wrath of the Heavens themselves. Back to Paradise City Back to Main Page